


Inches Apart and Far Away

by toushindai (WallofIllusion)



Category: Baccano!
Genre: Dissociation, I refuse to create a Fermet/Huey tag but.......... Fermet's pushin for it, boundary crossing, no one asked for this
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-24
Updated: 2017-02-24
Packaged: 2018-09-26 13:41:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,752
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9900449
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WallofIllusion/pseuds/toushindai
Summary: Fermet stops by one of Huey's labs to visit him unexpectedly. This is fine.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Kindly check the tags for warnings!

The game is familiar enough by now to be almost meaningless. Fermet drops by Huey’s laboratory, unannounced but somehow managing to pinpoint a day that Huey is here in person. In the space of a millisecond, anything Huey might have felt about his sudden appearance is gone, subsumed behind the empty smile of a puppet. Fermet, too, displays nothing but a smile, and if he’s ever disappointed that he fails to break Huey’s composure, Huey has never been able to tell.

“Have you made any progress on the homunculi?” Fermet asks cordially, after greetings are exchanged.

“Considerable progress,” Huey answers in the same easy tone. “It seems that Szilard has a tendency to get bogged down in focusing on our immortality and its implications rather than considering other paths to his goals, and I don’t find myself similarly limited. That said, his research provided an invaluable starting point, so I thank you for that.”

“You’re welcome! I was eager to see what you could do with it. In fact, I brought you some updated information.”

He reaches into his bag and pulls out a handful of papers, which Huey accepts. A simple skim of the handwritten notes reveals that little of it is particularly noteworthy or new. Fermet must know this as well; and so the goal of his visit must lie elsewhere. Huey flips the first page back into place and turns his empty smile to Fermet once more. “I appreciate it. Would you like to see what I’ve been doing? It seems only fair to share the fruits of my labor with you. And I’ve encountered a puzzle that I would like your help in addressing.”

The last statement is practical and utterly honest; Fermet’s mind works faster than his in some ways, and his insights into Huey’s alchemical research have proven helpful before. And so, as they walk together down the hall, Huey explains the roadblock he’s run into. Fermet ponders for only a moment before he taps his lower lip with one finger and tells Huey what he’s overlooked. It sounds painfully obvious when he says it. But Huey is already too busy figuring out how to incorporate this insight to waste any time in embarrassment.

The first time their hands brush against each other, Huey only apologizes demurely and keeps walking, shifting his course slightly to put a few more inches between them. The second time, it occurs to him that the physical contact may be deliberate. The third time, Fermet’s hand lingers against his for longer than can possibly be accidental. Huey glances over. Fermet’s smile only widens.

Huey’s head creaks to the side like an automaton’s. “What are you scheming this time, Fermet?”

With the accusation in the air, Fermet confirms it by taking Huey’s hand properly. He laces their fingers together, his skin surprisingly cool in the muggy air of the hallway. To Huey’s credit, he does not freeze. He refuses the rage and revulsion he could have felt; he stifles whatever it is that rises in his throat as a thick, sour lump. His smile remains, as though his question and Fermet’s response are both trivial things. He reminds himself: compared to the one thing that matters, they _are_ trivial.

Fermet’s lips curve in a gentle smile. “I’m not scheming,” he says serenely, his thumb tracing over Huey’s. “I’m just very happy to be here and see you again. I really do like you, you know—I don’t think I tell you that often enough.”

And Huey believes most of his answer—that Fermet enjoys coming here and taxing Huey’s composure, that he is taking a wicked pleasure in trapping Huey against the wall, that the smile on his face is utterly genuine.

“You’re always scheming something,” is what he says, disregarding the rest. Disregarding the feel of the wall against his back, the protest rising in his mind. His smile stays. He does not flinch, even as Fermet lifts a hand to his cheek. A flash of memory passes through his mind and he closes it out of the way, refusing to let the past associate itself with the present. He doesn’t push Fermet away. He won’t give him the satisfaction.

“I’m not scheming,” Fermet lies again. His voice is soft, but still edged with the unholy delight that defines him. He trails soft fingertips down Huey’s jawbone. “Do my affections bother you, Huey?”

Huey answers with a shrug. “I admit I find myself confused,” he answers. “I’m not unaware that you still like to toy with me, but I did think I had ceased to be your ‘type’ a long time ago. Surely you realize that I intend to abuse and twist whatever life I manage to create. Don’t you prefer innocents?”

“I don’t mind. I just think of the sweet little boy you used to be.” Fermet’s smile widens. “Besides, am I not allowed to appreciate your work? No one else will.”

“Honestly, it doesn’t matter to me either way.”

“No?” Fermet’s fingers trace Huey’s thin throat. He is leaning closer than Huey wants him to be, as close as he must have been on that day one hundred years ago, and leering. “Are you _really_ as disaffected as you pretend, Huey? What do you think of me? Am I just a lab rat gone rogue?”

“Rogue?” Huey answers, his voice comfortably mechanical and strangely far away. “Do you really think this is enough of a surprise to qualify for that?”

“Ooh, you mean you expected this?”

A shrug, again. “I ought to have, perhaps.”

“And have you ever _wanted_ it?” Fermet tilts his head, his eyes visible through his bangs for just a moment as his hair shifts. They’re predatory and malicious. But when his hair settles back into place, the shape of his smile looks gentle. “You’re lonely, aren’t you, Huey?”

Huey lets him talk.

“With Monica dead and that disgusting Smile Junkie off doing god knows what, I’m the only one who knows what you really care about. The only one who can sympathize with you, who can meet you at your intellectual level.”

He isn’t wrong, not really; Huey’s known that since that morning at the docks.

“Hm.” Fermet’s smile grows tender and his hand slips around the back of Huey’s neck to pull him forward. Suddenly Huey’s pulse is beating against Fermet’s palm and the blood is pounding in his ears and before Fermet’s smile can come any closer his hand rushes up and snatches Fermet’s jaw, wrenching it aside. Fermet’s jaw dislocates with a hollow _pop_ and Huey shoves him backwards.

And then he is in control of himself again. He takes a shallow breath, then a deep one, and a rueful smile decorates his lips. “I suppose I lose,” he confesses, slowing his heart by sheer force of will.

Fermet only laughs, rubbing his jaw as it shifts back into place. He’s gotten a rise out of Huey, and that’s what he wanted. That’s what he’s been after the whole time. “You’re such a tease, Huey. I thought you might honestly let me kiss you.”

“So sorry to disappoint.”

“Liar.”

“I suppose we suit each other in that regard.”

It’s not the wisest thing to say right now, no matter how true it is; Fermet bares his teeth like an animal that’s cornered its prey, all pretense of gentleness gone. He doesn’t reach for Huey again, but he doesn’t need to. Even without seeing his eyes, Huey knows that they must be bright and possessive and as inescapable as time itself.

But he hasn’t made any effort to trap Huey against the wall again, so it is a simple matter to slip away from him and proceed down the hallway. Fermet’s gaze does not _really_ touch his back like a physical thing, he knows; it only feels that way.

“Did you still want to see the homunculi?” he asks.

“They aren’t finished, you said?” Fermet asks in return, nominally accepting the change of subject.

“Regrettably, no.” Huey shakes his head. “None of them have awakened to consciousness just yet.”

“If they aren’t conscious, why on earth would I have any interest in them?” Fermet points out. His voice is tinged with delight and malice again.

“Ah, of course. I’ll show you to the exit, then.”

Huey only needs to give his empty smile, and all the non-feeling that accompanies it returns effortlessly. Distantly, or from somewhere deep within himself, he realizes anew how disgusting this personality is and how disgusting _he_ is for slipping so easily back into it. _Evil_ is the word. To speak to Fermet at all, to permit his existence when he wants nothing but to cause suffering to all that he touches, is evil. Huey causes the same suffering, with a more pointed purpose but just as indiscriminately; he is evil even without bringing Fermet into it. These are simple facts. There is no need to feel any emotion about simple facts.

Huey feels nothing at all, which is just as it should be. A century of practice has made it easy.

Fermet hovers for a little longer, keeping Huey from his work. He gossips: about the Dormentaires, about Szilard, about Begg. Huey finds that his mouth moves to ask about Czeslaw, and that Fermet’s reply doesn’t stick in his mind save for the gleam of his teeth as he speaks. That’s fine; he’s only making conversation, anyway.

Finally, Fermet begins to find his non-responsiveness boring. His tone grows more brusque as Huey’s answers grow more disinterested and monosyllabic, and at last he seems to decide that the conversation isn’t worth the effort after all. His smile never wavers, but Huey wonders if it has shifted into a false one.

He does not dwell on the thought, not now.

“Sorry to take up so much of your time,” Fermet says, lying once more.

“Not at all. Your help with the homunculi will surely prove fruitful,” Huey answers, not lying at all.

When Fermet’s hand reaches for his face again, he does not flinch; he only lifts his own hand and pushes it away before it can reach its mark. It is a calmer response than before, but Fermet still seems to count it as a victory for himself. His smile widens.

“I’ll come by again sometime, Huey.”

It is a promise and a threat and a curse all at once. It requires no specially formulated response. Huey’s smile remains painted across his face, like a doll’s.

“Until then, farewell.”


End file.
